


Stuck With Us

by tryceratops



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 15:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2512127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tryceratops/pseuds/tryceratops
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve's first Christmas since defrosting may not be easy, but Natasha's more than willing to help him out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stuck With Us

It’s hovering around zero with the windchill when she finds him on the rooftop of the tower, staring out over the city. She’s careful to make enough noise that he can hear her coming, though it’s always a conscious effort with her. There aren’t many people who could notice her coming if she doesn’t want them to.

“Hey.” She calls out as she walks up to him. He’s resting against the railing, arms crossed, hunched over a bit. A first he doesn’t respond, but then he slowly turns to look at her.

“Hey.” He responds softly.

“What are you doing out here, it’s freezing out.”

“I’ve seen worse.” He smiles deprecatingly at her. She smiles back and leans her back against the railing, elbows propped up on it.

“I guess you have.” He goes back to looking out over the city, and she takes the opportunity to examine him. “They’re missing you downstairs.”

It’s Stark’s annual Christmas Party, though, instead of a big bash like his recent birthday party it was a small, quiet gathering: the Avengers who could be rounded up, a few other close friends. He had a larger gala planned for later in the week.

“Just wasn’t really feeling in the partying mood, I guess.”

“It’s your first Christmas since you… woke up. Must be tough.” She pulls her jacket a bit tighter around herself as a gust of wind catches them.

“I’ve had a lot of different Christmases, but I think this year will be the strangest yet.”

She nods. “No old friends, no family...”

He finally looks back at her. “Something like that, yeah.”

“At least you have new friends now.”

“Colleagues, maybe. Friends may be a stretch.”

“We can be friends.”

“You don’t really seem the type to have friends.”

She smiles wryly at him. “Comrades, then.” A joke, but not one she’s sure he catches. She’s not entirely sure how much he knows about her.

He stares at her for a moment and then laughs softly, shaking his head. “Sure.”

“It’s not all bad, starting over. You get to make new traditions. The first year may be hard, but it gets easier as you go along.”

“You’re talking from experience.” A statement, not a question.

“I didn’t exactly get to celebrate holidays growing up.” She shrugs. “They are what you make of them. You can use them to mope about the past, or you can use them as a groundwork for the future.”

“So what was your first Christmas like, after…” he gestures helplessly.

“After I came over to this side?” She pauses for a moment. “The very first Christmas was still in the middle of my deprogramming. I spent it in a concrete cell, sixty feet underground. I got my first turkey dinner that year, if you can call the shit they served me on a tray a proper turkey dinner. That doesn’t really count though, I guess. The next one was me and Barton, holed up in a little seaside shack on the coast of Newfoundland, waiting for our target to stop by. It was our second mission together. He cooked chicken breasts over a wood stove for us, and we ate craisins with them.” She smiles fondly. “Every year since he’s given me craisins for Christmas.”

She falls silent and he stares at her thoughtfully for a while, having no response to that.

“I think, not that I know, but, I think that if you try to recreate old traditions, you may just dredge up things that are best left forgotten. I think you might just keep trying to recreate a time that you can never go back to. If you have something small that you can do, that you’ve done every year, that’s probably not bad, but don’t try to recreate something that you can’t. Make the best of where you are now.” She pushes herself off the barrier railing and heads back indoors. “You’re stuck with us, Rogers. May as well make the best of it.”

It only takes about ten more minutes for him to come inside and rejoin the party.

**Author's Note:**

> May come back and do something with Natasha's Christmases after this, we shall see.


End file.
